Hero inside
by Baronvonblack
Summary: One day, as Shinji heads out for school, he had no idea it would change his life forever. Superman Crossover, perhaps OOC but that's what you get for being superpowerful right?
1. Superpowers awaken

A/N: I may not be following the original timeline since I've forgot a lot of what happens in EVA, but hey, it's a crossover. I may or may not continue as well…

"BAKA!" Asuka's shrill cry echoed through Misato's apartment. "WHERE IS MY BREAKFAST?"

Shinji groaned inwardly. "It's nearly ready!" He sighed, pushing his glasses back up on the bridge of his nose. Ever since encountering and escaping the 12th Angel, Shinji was forced to wear glasses as a result of something the Evangelion had done to escape.

And this created a new world of pain for Shinji. Ever since wearing glasses, Asuka's insults had increased a hundredfold and instead of 'baka' and 'pervert', the German girl's repertoire of insults also included 'geek' and more frequently, 'four-eyes'.

He sighed. _Judging from her voice being louder than usual, it's going to be one of those days…_

But little did he know it would be one day that would change his life forever.

-------

As usual, Shinji packed his lunch and walked to school. However, instead of going with Toji and Kensuke as he usually would have, he decided to go alone.

During nights when he had been listening to his SDAT, the music would become incredibly loud, so loud if it was any louder he swore his ears would pop. When he would turn down the volume to a bearable level, he found that it suddenly became a barely audible sound as his hearing came back to normal.

Even worse, sometimes he'd wake up with a searing pain in his head. The young pilot couldn't explain why or what these strange things were, but Asuka definitely wasn't helping.

As he walked across a street, he turned to face the enigma that was Rei Ayanami.

Shinji smiled in a genuine way, so rare these days after escaping from the Sea of Dirac. "Hey, Ayanami."

Rei turned to acknowledge him. "Ikari." Her mouth curved up slightly, not noticeable to normal eyes but to Shinji's it was obvious she was pleased to see him.

And why not? Since Shinji had gotten glasses, the two had become closer. It was clear that Rei had seen the uncanny resemblance between him and his father; although it was lucky that Shinji hadn't looked at himself properly in a mirror otherwise he would have requested contacts.

They parted ways as they walked to school in different directions. Shinji felt that he should have asked her to walk to school with him – he could use her company.

As he walked down a lonely alley, a sharp pain rose in his ears as a horrid screeching rang.

"AGH!" Shinji dropped to the ground, clutching his ears in agony.

It suddenly cleared up, as Shinji stood up again stunned.

He then started to hear voices…

"_Are you sure it's him?"_

"_Yes, he's the Third Child…"_

Before he could react, a dark hand shot out from the shadows with a cloth covering his mouth. The teenager's eyes went wide as he tasted the chloroform…

Then it all went black.

-------

"Ugh…" Shinji opened his eyes groggily, feeling a splitting headache. "Where…where am I?"

He was tie to a chair, bathed in a light. Around him was darkness.

Suddenly, it all became bright as he saw that he was surrounded by several men in black clothes.

And they appeared to be surprised. "What? You should've been out for far longer than this."

Another shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Let's start the interrogation."

Shinji suddenly became freaked out. _Interrogation?!_

"So you're Shinji Ikari, the pilot of Unit 01," The lead man said.

He nodded uneasily. "Uh…yeah…"

"Your father runs NERV – but SEELE suspects that he has his own agenda. If you tell us anything about this, then we'll let you go free…"

"I don't know anything about it."

"If you don't tell us, then you will die!"

"I'm telling you, I don't know anything about it!" Shinji screamed.

The lead man paused. "Alright then, let's play it your way." He raised his hand to reveal a smooth shiny remote. "You see this remote. Well, I took the liberty of wiring it to two bombs, one below your guardian's apartment and the other below the school – don't worry, I have many contacts that would do this."

Shinji's eyes widened. _Oh no…Rei…Asuka…Misato…everyone will die!_

The man smirked. "You know what'll happen, don't you? So tell us anything…"

"I'm telling you, I don't know anything!" Shinji screamed again. "But please, please, don't kill them!"

"This kid's harder to break than we expected…" the man muttered under his breath. "Time for extreme measures." He raised his voice. "I'm going to count to five. If you don't tell me the information I want after that, then I'll blow them all to Hell!"

"NOO!" Shinji cried. "PLEASE DON'T!"

"One…"

"I'M TELLING YOU I KNOW NOTHING!"

"Two…"

"DON'T KILL THEM PLEASE!"

"Three…"

"I'M JUST AN EVA PILOT! MY DAD WOULDN'T SHARE ANYTHING WITH ME!"

"Four…"

"I'M BEGGING YOU!"

"FIVE!"

_NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!_

A searing pain ripped through Shinji's eyes as they suddenly glowed red.

As the lead man's brain sent the signal to his hand nerves to press the triggers, they suddenly stopped up to his wrist.

"AGGHHHH!" He screamed, clutching the burning stump that was once his hand. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!"

Shinji looked at it in horror.

"I'm done with this freak!" Another yelled. He slipped the gun hanging from his holster and raised it to Shinji's head. "Information or no information, he's dead!"

BANG!

A clattering sound was heard as the crushed bullet dropped to the ground.

The man stepped back in shock and horror. "What…what the hell are you?!"

But Shinji wasn't listening. That screeching sound was shooting in his ears, and searing pain was tearing through his body. He opened his mouth to scream –

And the pain ceased.

If Shinji had looked at himself then, he would have noticed that he had gotten much taller, and his scrawny body had gone to a not-so scrawny body.

His hair had also become slightly longer, not noticeable and a strand of curly hair flicked out onto his forehead.

"Man, let's just leave the kid here to starve," One kidnapper said. The others agreed, and soon they quickly filed out of the door.

Shinji froze in shock. What was he going to do now?

He tried to move his arms in a desperate attempt to get free –

And found that with hardly any effort at all, the ropes ripped off.

The teenager stood up, suddenly noticing that he had grown much taller.

_Whoa! That's weird, I always thought I was much shorter…WHOA!_

Shinji had finally noticed his now large arm muscles and broad chest. Not those of a beefy bodybuilder, but still big and well toned.

_I gotta get out of here, but I can't let these show…_

Shinji found his bag lying beside a table. It was lucky he always brought a jacket – if Asuka saw him like this, then she would never stop annoying him.

The Third Child decided to go to school first.

He quickly glanced at a watch lying on the table. _Oh that's good, I still got two minutes till…TWO MINUTES?! I'll never make it on time!_

The pilot sighed, walking outside to see what seemed to be the other side of the city.

Shinji started running, even though he knew it was a vain effort.

Or so he thought.

Everything around him blurred as he ran at a speed he never thought possible. Within seconds he had easily reached the school gate.

_In one day I've suddenly gone from normal teenager to some Superman? _He knew it wouldn't exactly be wise if he went to school now, not knowing the full extent of his new abilities, but he shrugged it off. "It has to be some side-effect of the 12th Angel," he said to himself. "It'll probably go away by the end of today!"

As his hand reached up to adjust his glasses, he noticed he didn't have them on. In surprise, he reached down to his glasses case, taking them out and putting them on.

Everything suddenly became blurry.

Shinji took them off, and everything became clear again.

He frowned. _I don't want anyone to know that anything is wrong. I'll put up with them until the end of school then I'll get some with plain glass._

-------

However, this proved to be far tougher than he thought, and Shinji had to frequently take off his glasses and pretend to rub his eyes or clean them.

But thankfully no one noticed –

No one except Rei, of course.

_Ikari is acting in a strange manner. Perhaps something is bothering him? _And only she had noticed that he had gotten taller. Shinji acted and hunched in such a way that no one would have noticed that he had become taller.

However, as the bell rang and signaled for school to end, it was clear that Shinji did not want to be in anybody's company, and Rei concluded that he preferred to be alone for today, therefore she decided not to talk to him.

-------

Shinji quickly ran home when he was out of sight, using his newfound super-speed. He found it relaxing in a way when everything blurred around him and he was running several times faster than the speed of sound. Perhaps he could go even faster, but he didn't bother.

_Is there something wrong with me? Is piloting the Eva making me like this? But then…why don't Rei and Asuka have any powers?_

He walked into Misato's apartment to find his guardian not home. _That's good…and Asuka still has to get home from school, so maybe I can experiment a bit…_

The pilot grabbed a piece of scrap paper and placed it on the floor. He sat down and started to focus on it.

At first, nothing happened but then instead of intense pain like Shinji had expected, a warm energy began to build up behind his eyeballs. It didn't hurt at all; it was even a little nice.

He focused even more intensely.

His eyes glowed red as he felt the energy burst out of them, burning the piece of paper easily.

_Cool! _He stood up, and then remembered when he had burnt that man's hand and his happy thoughts faded.

_I can't let that happen again, even if he was bad. I have to control myself so I don't kill anyone!_

A few minutes later, while Shinji was still pondering about his heat vision and that it could be controlled to increase or decrease the power, the young pilot heard the loud footsteps of familiar shoes and knew that Asuka was just across the street.

He immediately stood up, quickly super-speeding into the kitchen and grabbing all the stuff from the fridge, dishes and everything he needed to start cooking afternoon tea.

_Hey, you know, I might just get used to this!_

-------

After enduring a few more screams from Asuka, waiting for Misato to pass out from drinking too much beer and finishing dinner, Shinji decided he head out and explore.


	2. The costume

**Review responses:**

**Shinji Ikari01: **Ha. Don't worry he will be wearing a costume, but it's gonna be heaps cooler than the one the real Superman wears!

**Cyber-Undead: **Well to answer your review, Shinji had been trying to avoid Toji and Kensuke and had successfully done so. His hair is only slightly longer, but I forgot to write that as he went to school he straightened it out a bit. His muscles are big, but not big enough to rip through his clothes! And Section 2 sucks. They couldn't track an Angel if they even wanted to.

**Minstrel24: **Well the whole "trench coat" idea won't work because Superman isn't a bad boy like Batman or someone else, he's heroic, glorious and an icon! I'm not changing the personalities of any of the characters in the story to match Superman – you don't even have to read it like a Superman story if you don't want to either!

To the story…

-------

Shinji had now circled the city several times. It was the most relaxed he had ever been in years, perhaps in his life, running at several thousand kilometres per hour with everything blurring around him.

Suddenly, his new hearing picked up something…

"_HELP! Somebody help me!"_

The young pilot screeched to a halt, spinning around to locate the person.

_HELP! PLEASE!"_

"_Shut up bitch, or else you'll be in a world of pain!"_

He quickly found the source, running at normal speed towards it.

Turning into an alleyway, he saw a girl surrounded by a group of thugs.

_I can't let this go on! _Even with his powers, he still had doubts. _I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I MUSTN'T RUN AWAY!_

"HEY!" Shinji shouted.

The thugs all turned around to see him. In the darkness of the alleyway, it was almost impossible to discern Shinji.

"You! Go bash him!" One of the thugs said to another. The guy nodded, running towards Shinji with his knife flicked out.

Even though the person was running towards him armed with a weapon, Shinji wasn't afraid. His new abilities had not just blessed him with superpowers – they blessed him with a strong, steely backbone.

The person seemed to run so slow, it was like he was trapped in mud. Shinji suppressed a yawn, and gave him one soft punch when he came into range.

BAM! The thug went flying through the air, slamming into the wall and sprawling onto the ground unconscious.

The other would-be rapists looked stunned.

Then they all turned, running to attack him…

But Shinji easily kicked and punched his way out, taking their own hits like they were nothing!

And soon, the thugs were all laying there unconscious.

Shinji quickly ran across to help the girl. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine…thank you…" The girl said, flustered. "Hey…do I know you? I recognize your voice!"

Shinji's eyes grew wider as he then realized it was Hikari. "Uh, no…" He said in a deeper and more mature voice. I'm sorry Hik…miss, I don't know you."

He led her out the alleyway where it was brighter.

The class rep frowned as she tried to ID his face. "I'm sure you look familiar!"

In shock, Shinji realize he didn't have his glasses on, simply because they got in the way when he was running at super-speeds and were now in his pocket. Furthermore, his hair had become slightly looser when he ran and now a curl hung out onto his forehead.

He gave a dazzling smile, daring to be as dashing as he could (those superpowers seriously change someone) while he was still unrecognized. "I'm sorry, but I don't think we've ever met!"

Hikari felt herself blushing at his handsome face and smile. "Oh well…uh…thank you anyway!"

"HEY BITCH!"

They both turned around to see a thug on the ground, Shinji cursing himself inwardly for not keeping aware of their surroundings.

He was holding an Uzi. "See you both in hell!"

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

At once, Shinji had jumped into the air, grabbing Hikari and shielding her with his body.

The thug looked at him in horror. "WHAT ARE YOU?!"

Hikari opened her eyes. She looked at her savior, then looked down to see the ground several metres below. "You…you can fly!"

Shinji's jaw dropped when he realized this. _Just how many powers do I have?!_

The two floated easily to the ground.

"I'VE STILL GOT ENOUGH BULLETS TO KILL YOU!" The thug screamed as he emptied his magazine.

Shinji took the bullets to his back, not even feeling anything. He then spun around, using his heat vision to melt the guy's SMG and ran towards him at super-speed, knocking him unconscious.

The pilot turned towards Hikari. "You'd better go. And don't go out and night again!"

The class rep nodded, and as she slept that night she would be dreaming of her manly and hunky saviour coming to rescue her from the clouds.

-------

"WAAHHHH!" Shinji screamed in fear as he flew through the sky at a dizzying pace.

It had been easy to figure out how to fly again, but harder to control it as he spun, dove and flew higher in random circles and loops.

_Okay…okay…calm down! _Shinji stopped in mid-air, calming his beating heart. _I'll just take this slowly and try to learn control!_

That plan seemed to work. As Shinji flew slowly, getting to grips with turning, diving and flying higher, he increased the speed and could soon fly decently but it would still take some practice.

As he flew home, Shinji pondered what he should do with these new powers.

_Maybe with these powers I can finally stop others from dying and from getting hurt. Yeah! Maybe I could be a superhero, like those in the mangas that Kensuke always reads…_

He gave it no further thought, returning to his apartment and sneaking inside.

Everything was just as he left it. Misato was still drunk and unconscious, the lights were off and Asuka was probably asleep, as it WAS 12 pm. They must've thought he had already gone to bed.

-------

As Shinji prepared to head out the next day, even more refreshed and revived that he actually got up earlier to make breakfast, Toji and Kensuke run out to meet him.

"Hey man, look at you!" Toji exclaimed. "You're so tall, what happened?"

"I dunno," Shinji said meekly. "I must've had a growth spurt or something."

"Well if Rei likes tall guys, then you're in the game!" Kensuke said.

At this Shinji pretended to blush. He now realized why they teased him – it was all in good-natured fun that he was taking too seriously.

"Hey, stooges!"

All three of them groaned. "Beware the red devil," Toji said with sarcasm dripping from his lips.

"What was that, stooge?!" Asuka roared. "Did you say something about me? Well say it to my face!"

Before Toji could come back with another smart remark, Shinji quickly butted in. "Asuka, are you coming with the rest of the class to the museum today?"

Asuka smirked, folding her arms. "Of course not! I've already graduated from university, why do I even need to go to the museum?!"

"That's from someone who's failing!" Toji yelled.

Kensuke and Shinji both sighed in unison as the two began arguing once again.

At school, Hikari looked like she was daydreaming, with stars in her eyes as she stared out the window.

"Hikari?" Asuka asked as she sat down beside her. "What's up? You look as if you've met a real cute guy!"

The class rep gave a girlish sigh. "You have no idea, Asuka…"

-------

When they arrived at the museum, the class was told they could freely explore until the end of the day.

"Hey, check that out!" Kensuke said as he pointed to a strange small machine and cable. On the small card it read:

_Dial-up. To connect to the Internet Dial-up utilized phone lines as a means, although this meant that the phones couldn't be used for calling. It was also at only a speed of 56k._

"I don't think I could ever survive it being so slow!" Kensuke said. "I'd die!"

As they walked through the Pre-Impact rooms, Shinji eventually got bored and decided to wander off by himself.

He had originally intended to go to the café to get a snack, but he took a wrong turn and inadvertently stumbled into the 'Unsolved Mysteries' section.

There was a lot of junk there that Shinji was bored of (after all, who wanted to know if Napoleon won in Waterloo or not?).

However, as he was walking through, he noticed something…

It was a metal plate, with a strange, diamond shape. Inside it was an 'S'.

The plaque read:

_This insignia was found inscribed into a strange black material found after the events of Second Impact. Nothing has been made of it, but many strange theories have been presented, from relation to Angels to…_

Shinji stopped reading, then went to look at the symbol again.

That 'S'…

-------

"Sempai, Shinji's sync ratio has increased by a whole ten points!" Maya exclaimed in surprise.

"That's incredible!" Ritsuko said as she looked at the charts. "And it's holding steady as well. That new plugsuit is working like a charm!"

Before the sync test, Ritsuko had given the pilots a set of new plugsuits. The new suits were skin tight as usual, but they were far less bulky and much more sleeker. "And to top it all off," Ritsuko said, obviously very proud of her work, "These will survive and endure much longer than the originals, in case the pilots ever get caught out in the wilderness after ejection!"

But they didn't increase their sync ratios.

Shinji's new confidence did.

As Shinji finished washing in the showers, wiping off the LCL, he slipped out of his plugsuit and put it on the rack.

Then he spotted something.

Among the rows of blue and white plugsuits, a sleek black one caught his eye…

He took it out and looked at it.

Below the chest, it was jet black and shiny.

Over the chest and down the arms, it was silver…

And Shinji did something he never would've done before.

He smirked.


	3. Emergence day

"Hey, baka!" Asuka screamed. "Come here!"

Shinji sighed as he set down his cello, getting up to see what the Second Child wanted. "Yes Asuka, is there something I can do for you?"

"If there wasn't, why would I call you?" Asuka smirked as she folded her arms. She was in casual attire – a plain shirt and dress.

_Good point, _Shinji thought. "So what do you want?"

"You're going to be accompanying me to the store – simple! I have to get some new perfume because Misato said KAJI's coming tonight!" She giggled like a little girl.

"But then why don't you go yourself?" Shinji said feebly.

"I don't want any guys to be hitting on me. As much as I'd love to show them how great Asuka Langley Sohryu is, I'm saving all my charm for Kajiii…" She sighed.

_Oh great…_

Asuka snapped out of her brief daydream. "So YOU'RE going to be acting as my pretend boyfriend. Of course, why I would choose someone as pathetic as you is easy – there's no one else!" She quickly linked arms with him. "So OFF we go!"

It was only now that she realized how tall he had become. Her eyes widened in shock. _How could I have not noticed this before?_

And as she grabbed his arms… _AH! These things are bigger than Kaji's! _Her heart pace quickened considerably.

And unfortunately Shinji's super ears picked it up. "Uh Asuka…are we going now?"

Asuka quickly snapped out of her shock. "Y…yeah…let's go Third!" _He must've wrapped socks around his arms…yeah! There's no way they could be that big, he's doing this to impress me!_

-------

Asuka dragged Shinji across the city towards their destination, the guy's worst nightmare…

The girl's store!

But thankfully for Shinji, there was a massive roadblock in the way.

"What?" Asuka moaned. "Why are they blocking the road?"

"Sorry, miss, but you can't come through here," The soldier said.

"I'm an Evangelion Pilot!" She screamed. "I demand to be let through here!"

The soldier then told her the clearance she needed to get in.

Asuka growled. "One level above mine…BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN…"

But Shinji was thinking. _It's time…_

"Uh…Asuka?"

"Yes, baka?" She growled angrily.

"I totally forgot that I left the oven on!" Shinji said frantically. "I've got to get home and turn it off!" And without waiting for an answer, he quickly hurried back.

Asuka smirked. _Stupid baka, you're not even going the right way…_

-------

"BURN!" The lunatic screamed as he sprayed them with his flamethrower. Bullets harmless bounced off him as he did. "BURN, BECAUSE THE DEVIL IS HERE!" He cackled insanely as he grabbed his machine gun, letting a loose of shots that killed the burning soldiers.

"We've had enough!" The Chief shouted from a nearby car. "What is it you want?!"

"Simple," the heavily armoured, clad from head to toe in Kevlar and carbon fiber plating man said. "I want you to give me the pilot of the red Evangelion!"

-------

As the soldier seriously considered whether to shoot Asuka as she screamed and ranted, he got new instructions on his mike.

"Yes...I understand, sir." The soldier turned to the angry redhead. "Are you the pilot of Evangelion Unit-02?"

Asuka grinned. "Of course! It is the best, after all."

The soldier turned. "Come with me, then."

The soldier led Asuka past a bunch of jeeps, several special units and snipers loading up their rifles.

_Geez…what's up? It's not like an Angel is attacking._

That's when she saw the lunatic, heavily armoured and several hostages behind him.

_Whoa…_

The loony saw her. "It's her!" He screamed, taking up his machine gun. "YOU WILL DIE FOR YOUR INCOMPETENT EVA!"

Asuka's eyes widened in shock and fear as her proud self deserted her.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

"Looks like I made it just in time," The costumed man smiled as the bullets bounced harmlessly off him. He walked towards the lunatic as the bullets simply rebounded off him.

Asuka was stunned. _Those bullets are bouncing off him like an AT field! How is this possible?_

"Why are you doing this?" The hero asked as he came face to face with the lunatic.

He scurried backwards, away from this caped being. "WHAT ARE YOU?!" He screamed.

"Superman."

"No…no one can deflect bullets like that." He eyed Superman's sleek suit suspiciously. "Your suit must be an advanced version of my armour. Yes…" He aimed his machine gun at Superman's head. "But your head is entirely unprotected!"

As he emptied his gun at Superman's face, the caped hero grinned. "It looks unprotected…but it isn't."

The murderer dropped his machine gun, quickly reverting to his old flamethrower, setting it onto full-power and blasting him, completely engulfing Superman in flames. "Ha ha!" He cackled gleefully. "Whatever you've got, it can't…WHAT?!"

Superman walked through the flames, his suit not even having a scratch on it. "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with fire…or guns, for that matter?"

"MY MOTHER'S DEAD!" He wailed. "And it's all because of that…that bitch over there!"

Superman narrowed his eyes as he turned to look at Asuka.

Asuka giggled nervously. His intense look seemed to break through her mental defenses, staring into her very soul. It seemed that she couldn't summon any of her pride or courage just by being stared at by him.

He turned back to the person. "If you fight fire with fire, there will only be more fire. Surrender now or I will be forced to apprehend you."

Growling in anger, the criminal dropped his weapons, deciding to fight the good old way –

His fists.

The soldiers surrounding them were too shocked to move, even though the man had dropped his weapons.

The good old right hook was heavily slowed down by the heavy armour, but it was a sort of double-edged sword as it would increase his damage greatly.

But he was stupid enough to think that if bullets wouldn't hurt him, and then neither would his fist.

CLANG!

"ARGH!" The man gripped his fist in agony as he heard several sickening cracks. The armour on his hand was also heavily dented, crushing his hand bones inside. "What are you?!"

"I told you – I'm Superman," The hero said calmly.

"You may have won this round…" He hissed, "But not the next! You don't know, but there are several bombs hidden inside in the building and foundations! They're already on the countdown now!"

Superman did a quick X-ray scan. "You're lying," He said bluntly.

The criminal stepped back. "But h-how did you know?"

"Give yourself up!" Superman snapped. "NOW!"

The criminal grinned as he pressed a button on his wrist. A sudden beeping sounded.

Superman's eyes went wide. "A self-destruct!"

Immediately, using his super-speed, since he couldn't get to all the hostages behind him in time he settled to grabbing him and chucking him away into the sky.

Although he had incredible strength that would easily put him into orbit, the self-destruct suddenly went off as he went past the roof.

BOOM! The massive explosion sounded, causing the hostages to run away screaming and Superman to quickly hover up, using his heat vision to dissipate the rubble.

However, even he couldn't burn them all quickly enough and a particular large one went flying towards a very familiar redhead.

Superman quickly reacted, super-speeding in front of her and easily holding out his hand to catch the massive chunk of rubble.

The caped crusader turned to the Eva pilot. "Are you alright?"

Asuka finally got a good look at him. He was very powerfully built, his skin-tight silver and black suit showed off his muscles quite nicely and he wasn't too bad-looking either. In fact, with his long dark brown hair and a curl sticking out in front of his forehead, his deep, piercing blue eyes and calm look, he was almost more fetching than Kaji… but also strangely familiar.

Shinji felt his defenses flicker briefly as he faced her, however somehow managed to maintain his calm facade as he spoke. "Don't act stupid in your Evangelion again." With that, he floated upwards, then flew towards the sky at super-speeds, his silver cape streaming behind him.

_Who was that guy? _Asuka wondered.

-------

Shinji sighed a breath of relief as he set down on a nearby roof. He smiled as he looked down at his costume.

It was the sleek, cool silver and black plugsuit he had taken earlier. However, his insignia was sewn onto it using a copy of the original S-Shield (A/N: bought from the souvenir shop – Shinji won't steal!). It seamlessly integrated into the costume as it was a silver 'S' with a black background.

His cape was made of a shiny silver fabric he found in the school. They were throwing out old drama props, so he decided to take it in for a better use.

The suit did something strange to him. For some reason, the suit seemed to belong as he put it on for the first time. It felt like he was wearing 12, 000 plates of fortified armour, like in the EVA, even though he knew he could deflect bullets.

In this suit, a new Shinji was revealed, a different persona – Superman.

Overall, he felt like in this suit he was simply invincible, undefeatable by any words, weapons or foe.

Shinji took his clothes lying beside him as he began to put them on.

A/N: Next chapter there will be more characterization – this chapter was just to introduce him as Superman.


	4. Secret revealed

"Ha ha!" Asuka laughed. "Only a stupid baka like you could ever get lost."

"I'm sorry…" Shinji mumbled. "I just wasn't thinking straight…and even worse the oven was never on in the first place."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Asuka barely constrained her laughter.

"Sorry, Asuka, but Shinji's lying – he's not limp, he showed me last night." Obviously Misato, as she walked into the kitchen.

Shinji started blushing a deep scarlet. "Misato, please!"

"Oh, don't worry – anyway, Kaji's…" A small vein appeared on her forehead as she forced out the name, "Coming over tonight. Shinji, would you please start making dinner?"

"Uh…okay, Misato." Shinji walked over to his familiar place and started grabbing plates and food for dinner.

Asuka noticed he was walking a bit uncomfortably and stiffly. "Hey baka, something wrong?"

"No, nothing!" Shinji said a bit too quickly as he bent down to grab a tin of sauce.

"Are you sure? You walk like an Evangelion barely passed borderline!"

"No, I'm telling you, I'm fine!" Far from the truth. The plug suit was tight and fitted well, but even with its increased mobility, it was NOT designed to be worn under clothes.

Asuka shrugged before walking off. _It's not like I care._

Shinji pushed his glasses up, turning to glance at her as she left before continuing cooking.

-------

Asuka lay on her bed, thinking about the man who called himself Superman before sighing girlishly. _He's so handsome…and dreamy, and strong and fast and he can fly…_

Her eyes widened in shock. _Whoa! Down girl, he's probably too old for you!_

She started to sigh again. _But Kaji's never too old for any girl…_

And there was Shinji…

_HA! Maybe once he grows a backbone!_

The redhead got up, getting ready to dress up for her Kaji.

-------

"Hi Mr. Kaji!" Shinji greeted as he opened the door.

The unshaven man grinned at the Third Child. "Hey, it's certainly been a while, you've grown a bit and you know most girls have a glasses fetish…"

Shinji blushed for the second time that night. "Uh thanks…but come in, dinner's almost ready!"

Kaji nodded, walking in and looking around. "Hey Misato…don't tell me you're on a date!"

"Kaji…" Misato acknowledged as she came out.

"Oh and by the way, is Asuka…"

"KAAAJJJIIIII!"

The man winced. "I guess my question is answered."

Asuka came out, dressed in a stunning white dress that showed off all her best 'assets'. "Hello, Kajiii…"

Shinji sighed as he concentrated on putting the dishes at the table.

Having to be a superhero was one thing, having to put up with Asuka flirting with Kaji (while he had super hearing) was something else.

"So Misato," Kaji said quickly before Asuka could say anything else, "Have you heard of the latest hero in town?"

"No," Misato replied. "Who's that?"

"Word is that he's called Superman. Apparently he single-handed foiled a hostage taker – a heavily armoured, heavily armed one with nothing but his bare hands."

"Whoa!" Misato said in surprise. "Now that's impressive."

"And there's more! The guys who I know that work with Special Forces say that he could deflect bullets, wielded super strength, and could fly and shoot beams out of his eyes."

"Would that mean he was an Angel?" Misato asked quickly in worry.

"If he were, he would definitely be the smallest Angel I've ever seen," Asuka interjected.

Misato raised an eyebrow. "You were there?"

"Yeah," The girl nodded. "He was…incredible."

Kaji sighed inwardly in relief. _If she's developing a crush on someone else, then I can concentrate my efforts on Misa…_

"BUT," Asuka said with a sigh, "He'll never overwhelm my desire for you Kaji…"

_Damn._

"Dinner's ready!" Shinji announced.

-------

Shinji stared up at the ceiling that night in thought.

_The suit's far too uncomfortable. Somebody will eventually notice, but I can't just put it in a pack and carry it around because I need to be able to change quickly and somebody will notice far quicker._

He turned to the side, wrapping his blankets around him. _If I can go to Dr. Akagi…_

_No. I can't let anyone know about this._

His SDAT lay unused on the desk. He didn't need that to help him sleep anymore.

-------

Gendo watched his son as he entered the Evangelion for his sync test. "Strange," He muttered under his breath.

"What's strange, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki asked, as always by his side.

"My son seems to have gotten much taller," He said. "And the plug suit shows that he is much more defined than before…"

"Do you want me to order Katsuragi to ask?"

"No, I do not want her to know about it. Ask Ritsuko to give him a physical test."

-------

Shinji frowned as he heard this. _Guess I won't be able to get away with this unless I can convince Dr. Akagi not to tell the others about my abilities._

-------

"Shinji?" Ritsuko asked.

"Dr. Akagi?" Shinji asked as he exited the locker room in normal clothes, his Superman attire in a pack, appearing to be puzzled.

"The Commander has asked me to give you a physical test concerning your new height and physical appearance."

"Alright, then," Shinji said. _Here goes nothing…_

Ritsuko guided him to a medical room. "Firstly, could you please take off your shirt?" She asked as she sat down, getting her medical instruments.

Shinji did without any comment.

Not surprisingly, Ritsuko was shocked by his new muscles. _There's no way a 14-year old can have those kinds of muscles or gain height in such a short amount of time._

She grabbed a needle from her set of instruments. "Shinji, I'm just going to take a blood test."

"Uh…Dr. Akagi, I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

She raised an eyebrow in surprise, but nonetheless continued.

Shinji didn't stop her, so she assumed it was just nervousness.

But as she was about to put the needle into his skin…

_Snap! _The needle broke in half.

"I don't want to break your needles," Shinji said.

Was that expectancy in his face? Expectancy of something like this to happen?

_Maybe that was a bad needle. I'll grab another one._

With the same consequences.

One by one, all the needles broke and Ritsuko now had a bunch of useless instruments. "Shinji, how come…"

"It's probably not that you have a bad set of instruments," Shinji said, half-joking, half-serious. "After all, nothing short of a cannon can pierce my skin now."

_A CANNON?! _Ritsuko quickly processed this information, matching it with a certain hero that was appearing in the news. "There's only one thing that can deflect bullets, other than an Angel…"

"Please don't tell the others I'm Superman," Shinji begged.

But Ritsuko was happy. _Yes…this is the perfect opposition to Instrumentality…and I will get my revenge on you, Gendo, using your own son!_

"Don't worry, Shinji – my lips are sealed."

Shinji was relieved as he sat down. "Thank you. I don't want any extra attention."

Ritsuko nodded in full understanding. "But tell me Shinji – how did you get these powers?"

So Shinji recounted how he used to have headaches and other strange things, then went on to the kidnapping and then his taking the plug suit and using it as a costume to beat that psycho.

"Can I see this costume?" Ritsuko asked.

Shinji nodded, taking it out of his backpack.

The doctor's eyes went wide as she saw the sleek costume. "Wow, Shinji! Did you actually make this from the plug suit?"

"Um…there wasn't very much I needed to add," Shinji said meekly. "But the suit's too weird to wear underneath clothes even though it's quite good to move in while flying and walking around by itself."

"Oh, I think I can fix that," Ritsuko said eagerly with a grin.

-------

Ritsuko had promised to build a very advanced version of his suit for use in any terrain and environment – including even space and most importantly underneath his clothes. But for the time being he would have to stick to his original suit.

-------

"Hello, Ikari," Rei said in her usual soft manner as they came across each other on a street.

"Um…hi, Ayanami," Shinji said with a smile.

Rei frowned as she sized him up. _His shoulders appear to have straightened out and he carries himself in a much more confident manner. Something has caused him to become like this…_

"Well…see ya," he said quickly as a large explosion sounded across from them in a building, with police sirens blaring. And with that he ran away into an alley.

Rei turned to survey the large damage caused. There was a massive fire, and many fire engines were surrounding it, to try and put out the flames.

Then suddenly BANG! A huge explosion occurred, sending a massive shockwave across, easily shattering the already weakened water tank above Rei as it tumbled from the building and now went flying to her.

As she looked up, her eyes widened in shock as fear coursed through her for the first time. There would be no time to dodge –

A heroic figure flew above her and stopped the fall, easily holding the water tank with one hand as he hovered down to speak with her.

He was extremely handsome, with long hair, a curl out on his forehead and deep blue eyes that seemed to stare into her soul. He had a muscular build and seemed to boom an aura of confidence and power.

"Next time, watch where you're going," Superman said in a deep…but soft, mature voice as if one of a parent gently correcting a child.

Rei felt something inside her, something she had never felt before…

Superman knew she was feeling it through his super senses. After all, the increase of her heart rate, the almost undetectable faint rising of color on her skin as her overall body temperature rose…

But those were only extra details that he didn't need to know as he flew up, using his heat vision to bond the water tank supports back together.


	5. Asuka

**Review Responses:**

**Ikari Zero: **Well, Ritsuko has always been the one to catch on quickly.

**Reikson: **That's disgusting!

**Andross: **I still haven't forgotten about those bombs…

**A/N: **Yes, Superman will have a major weakness and a major villain, but in this chapter we'll see more of how his powers function and why he can fight the Angels without Eva.

-------

"Well, how does it feel, Shinji?" Ritsuko asked as he tried on the new suit.

Shinji looked down at himself. The suit looked virtually the same as his old one, except there was a sleek silver belt strapped on with his 'S' symbol as well.

And as he hovered around the room, doing a few punches and spins, he said in astonishment, "Wow, this actually feels a lot better Dr. Akagi!"

"Call me Ritsuko. And thank you for that compliment." Her expression turned serious again. "But Shinji, can I ask you how you think you got these powers?"

The young hero thought for a moment. "I don't know…all these things started developing after the 12th Angel."

"Well, that may be a major clue," Ritsuko replied. "It may be possible and more than likely that being inside the Sea of Dirac has altered your body to possess these powers. The Sea of Dirac still possesses many questions unanswered."

"Well, I guess this is an occupational hazard."

"Yeah, it definitely is," Ritsuko laughed. "But you won't mind if I run a few tests, do you?"

"Um, I don't want to break any more of your needles."

"Other kinds of tests. Ones that don't involve any needles."

-------

What Ritsuko had as 'other' kinds of tests weren't actually that bad. All they were was having an X-ray done and being scanned by a few machines.

Ritsuko sipped at her coffee as she ran the results through her computer.

Shinji leaned in, frowning as he wasn't exactly able to understand the wave patterns and complicated terms. "Well how am I?"

Ritsuko inhaled. "According to the X-rays, physically you haven't altered except for increased muscle mass and height. However, energy scans show that you are surrounded by an energy field over your skin."

"An AT field?" Shinji said quickly in surprise.

"No – completely different, although your energy wave pattern is similar to that of an Angel this can be attributed to the Sea of Dirac. This energy field is strange and unlike anything I've ever seen, but it can be used to pierce other AT fields. Your body doesn't contain an S2 organ either."

Shinji sighed in relief.

Ritsuko's eyes widened in shock. "Well, this is something. I've finally able to find the most likely source of power."

"What?" Shinji asked curiously.

"Your cells, your abilities and energy field are all powered by the sun's energy. The closer you are to the sun, the more powerful you get."

-------

_The sun…_Shinji mused with humour as he walked to school the next day.

It was quite funny. Now he had an even better reason not to wear sun cream – not that he was going to tell anyone, of course.

As he walked into class and took his seat, his super-ears overheard an interesting conversation between Asuka and Hikari.

"_Oh, Superman is sooo hot, isn't he?"_

"_Come on, give it a break. He's probably limp, anyway."_

"_You've gotta be kidding! With the killer body he's got?"_

"_Well…I suppose he does have a good body…But he gave me one heck of a glare when I accidentally killed that loony's family!"_

"_You did what? No wonder he glared at you! But anyway…I'd give anything to meet him again…"_

"_Yeah…even I would…"_

Their conversation was interrupted by the shrill ring of the bell. Hikari stood up, giving the usual "Stand, bow, sit".

Shinji's eyelids were half-closed as he sat there. When would this droning stop?

Suddenly, his ears picked up something not too far off.

"_Can somebody help me bring down my cat? This guy's not helping!"_

Well…it wasn't the most important thing but hey, an excuse was an excuse!

"Excuse me?" Shinji put his hand up. "I have to use the bathroom."

The teacher gave a nod, and as Shinji ran out the classroom he changed to super-speed and swiftly switched into his Superman costume, taking to the skies.

-------

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!" Kaji called as he offered the cat up in the tree a biscuit. "Come and get it!"

"When will my cat be down?" The girl asked in urgency.

Kaji turned and flashed one of his lady-killer smiles. "Don't worry, he'll be down soon." _Man, what a babe! If I can take her cat down then maybe…_

"Mind if I give a try?"

Kaji turned around in surprise to see the Man of Steel giving him a smile. "Well sure," Kaji said. "Go right ahead." _I've been trying for an hour there's no way even he can go!_

Superman hovered up onto the branch, crouching down at eye-level with the cat. He gave a small smile. "Hey, what's wrong? Your owner is down there and she's worried about you. Why don't you come with me and I'll get you down?"

The cat looked back at him with wide eyes before it leapt into his muscular arms. Superman held it close to his body as he floated softly down to the lady.

"Oh thank you!" The lady said in relief. "If there's anything I can do to repay you…anything you want…"

Kaji winced slightly. _Damn! And I bet that he's gonna…_

"Thank you, but there's no need," Superman said with a smile. "I'm just happy that your cat is back with you." _And I'm off school!_

The lady bowed again before leaving on her way.

Superman watched her left before taking to the skies.

"Wait!"

Superman turned to Kaji. "Is there something you wanted?"

"Yeah, there is…" The unshaven man swallowed all his pride as he got on his knees and begged. "PLEASE TAKE PILOT ASUKA OFF MY TAIL!"

Superman blinked. _Whoa. That was unexpected? _"How do you expect me to do that to the Evangelion pilot?"

Kaji got up. "You're a ladies' man, don't deny it, like me. All you have to do is charm her a little so she won't annoy me and I can keep all my efforts on Misa – Captain Katsuragi."

"I'm not exactly looking for a girlfriend," Superman stated bluntly.

"Heck, I'd settle for just a one-night stand with Katsuragi…but anyway, you just have to distract her!"

Superman pondered it for a moment. _Well, I DID swear to help all people…_He shrugged. "Okay, I'll give it a go."

-------

_What was I thinking?! _Shinji groaned as he stood on the roof of the school, buttoning up his shirt and straightening his hair. _Well, it can't be that bad if Asuka doesn't flirt with Kaji…_

His mind considered a new possibility as he leapt gently off, keeping care to stay quiet as he made his way back into class.

_But then Superman will be harassed 24-7…_He shrugged. _Well that's why I'm called Superman! I just hope Asuka won't kill herself._

As he walked back into class, no one noticed. Only Hikari glanced up to see he had returned before going back to typing on the computer, as well as the rest of the class.

Shinji sat down again. As his eyes passed over the class briefly, his gaze lingered for a moment on Rei. It was nothing more than a passing glance, but even in that short time his now superb eyes and hearing revealed a lot of things.

Her heart was beating quicker than normal today. She had adopted a different posture than that of just looking out the window casually, but actually WAS looking out the window as if it was the most important thing in the world.

Shinji frowned. _Did I make that much of an impact on her?_

He could have sworn it was nothing more than a passing glance. It seemed even that completely changed her views.

What he didn't know was that Rei had forgotten to take her hormone-suppressing shot this month.

-------

"BAKA! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Asuka screamed.

Shinji's cello screeched as he immediately ran to serve the fiery redhead. "Uh…what do you want, Asuka?"

"You're supposed to be making dinner now!" She yelled. "Get organised!"

"Yes ma'am…" Shinji mumbled in a low tone as he went to the kitchen.

Just then Misato came in. "Asuka, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Umm…" Asuka was surprised; it wasn't like Misato to just waltz in like that without cracking a joke or two. "Sure…"

Shinji frowned at them as they left.

-------

The two of them went into a room. "So…what's this thing I heard between you and Superman?" Misato giggled.

"WHAT!" Asuka screamed at 100 volume.

-------

A certain super-powered someone felt his eardrums pop.

-------

"Kaji says that you two are getting it on…he was even serious. It's true, isn't it?"

"NO!" Asuka yelled at the top of her lungs. "THERE IS NO WAY ME AND THAT…SUPERHERO ARE…"

A sound was heard at the balcony.

Misato's soldier's sense came to life as her hand went to her gun immediately. "Quiet, Asuka…" She whispered, getting into a firing stance.

The first thing that popped into her mind was Shinji. He was totally defenseless and probably unaware of anything going on, so she quickly crept out with Asuka following.

There wasn't anyone at the kitchen, so Misato assumed he had probably gone to the toilet or something.

This meant there was only one thing left to do…

Misato cocked her pistol, creeping towards the balcony.

As she got there, hoping to take whoever was there by surprise she sprinted forward onto the balcony, gun at the ready.

And there, on the rail, casually stood with perfect balance and grace the Man of Tomorrow, the Man of Steel, whatever the press nicknamed him since he started foiling crime and dishing out justice.

But to all of them, he was just Superman.

His sleek silver 'S' symbol blazed on his chest, his black suit with solid silver streaks, his silver belt, his cape flapping around in the breeze and his handsome face and curl hanging out on his forehead.

Misato just stood there with her jaw wide open.

Superman gave a dazzling smile, one that even he wasn't aware of. "Have you seen where Asuka would be, captain?"

"Uh…"

"You mean me?" Asuka came out from behind Misato.

Superman nodded.

At that moment teasing-Misato returned.

"OHH, THIS IS JUST TOO CUTE! TOKYO-3's NEWEST CRIMEBUSTER AND ASUKA ARE…"

"I just want to talk to her, that's all." Superman said with a laugh.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Asuka demanded with a feeble voice. Superman made her feel weak for some strange reason…

"We'd better go to some place private." Superman hovered softly down. "Here, hold onto my hands and get onto my boots so you'll have a comfortable ride."

Asuka, almost hypnotically slipped into bare feet and did as she commanded. _WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME! IT'S LIKE I CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF!!_

They were in a sort of waltz position as Superman gently took off.

Asuka closed her eyes, burying her head in his muscular chest. _He's so warm…_

Now let's not forget that occasionally Shinji returns to his usual self. If Asuka saw him blushing bright red…


	6. Enter the 13th Angel

**Review responses:**

**Ikari Zero: **If I get far enough, yes there will be heaps of Gendo bashing. This chapter will show him fighting an Angel.

**Sun S. Li: **Just because Asuka likes him doesn't meant that Superman's gonna return the feelings. And Kaji just wanted to get into the woman with the cat's pants as well. The whole Superman thing was just a ploy to get into Misato's pants as well.

**Reikson: **If she's hot, why does she need Gendo?

-------

"What are you making Ritsuko?" Shinji asked with his Superman suit on.

The doctor finished drawing up the last equation on the diagram. "It's a special kind of generator, designed to replicate the environment of the Sea of Dirac. It's obvious that the Sea of Dirac gave you those powers, so if we can replicate those conditions, for humans it could be like a next stage of evolution!" _And the Old Men's Third Impact will become obsolete as well._

Shinji frowned. "I see what point you have, but there are some issues involved."

Ritsuko raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Power like that wasn't meant to be given freely. Power isn't for all people to get, either. It's for the unique people, the people who will use it correctly and for a good cause."

"And you consider yourself unique?"

Shinji's frown deepened as he made no further comment.

-------

Superman stood on the highest point of a tower, watching over the city.

Power was a fascination to greedy people – people like his father.

His brow creased in a short burst of anger. He was not his father. 'Father' was merely a lost title that Gendo clung to for his manipulation, for his use in combating the Angels.

Shinji closed his eyes, relaxing. No. There was a reason why Gendo was chosen for this task.

For now, he would fight the Angels and call Gendo his father.

There was a reason for everything, wasn't there?

Superman gently floated off before powering across at super speed, orbiting the Earth several times.

He found that it cleared his head, helping him to reflect on last night with Asuka…

_Sister._

His mind came to this conclusion as he thought of her and his feelings towards her.

_She is my sister. My family. Not by blood, but my family._

-------

"Shinji!"

The young pilot turned to see Toji walk and sit beside him while he was having lunch.

Noticing his concerned look, Shinji was worried. "Is something wrong, Toji?"

The jock sighed. "NERV…came. They said that…I had been chosen as the Fourth Child."

Shinji's eyes went wide. This was certainly unexpected. "Don't worry, Toji. It'll be okay, I promise."

"Yeah, I know it'll be like that. But it was the way in which they told me. Originally I refused, but after saying that my sister would be taken to better NERV hospitals…"

"WHAT?!"

"Huh?" Toji was confused – Shinji never made outbursts like this.

The Third Child was on his feet now. "How could they use your sister's medical condition like this?!" He roared in anger. "That isn't…right!" His fist clenched and he was visibly shaking before he relaxed and calmed down.

Toji stood up. "It sounds wrong, but at least I know she'll be in good hands."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Shinji said with a sigh. "But as I said, don't worry…nothing will happen to you, I promise."

-------

Regardless of what he said, Shinji was disturbed by this new development.

For a moment he considered asking Ritsuko about this, but decided that even if she knew, it was too late for him to cancel.

Shinji slipped his hands into his pockets, feeling the cool material of the suit inside his clothes.

_All the Eva does is cause more pain than it does good. No one should be allowed to get into that machine._

As Shinji, he couldn't do anything about it. But as Superman…

_No. Superman was created for others, not for me. The Eva is the only other weapon we have against the Angels…and besides, even Superman's no god._

He looked at his watch. _Asuka missed her six o'clock dinner bell. Is something wrong?_

-------

Asuka smiled as she reflected over the short time she had with Superman…

_He's so kind and so caring…he's attentive and listens…unlike baka Shinji or Misato or even Kaji…_

_And he's so warm…_

But there was a strange feeling that the redhead couldn't put down. It was bothering her, it didn't feel right…

It felt like…family.

-------

"Rei?"

"You asked for me, doctor?" The albino asked as she came in.

"Yes," Ritsuko replied. "Two weeks from now, I want you to come in here exactly the same time. It is very important that you don't tell anyone, not even the commander."

"What for?"

"I just need to try out a new device I've been working on…"

-------

_Several days later – Activation Test of Unit-03_

"NO!" Shinji screamed as he walked out in his Evangelion, looking at the pitch black shape of Unit-03 – or now, the 13th Angel. _I promised him that I'd protect him…but how can I fulfill it?!_

The Angel sprinted towards him quickly, using its strange, rubbery arms to grab Unit-01's neck, slamming into it and forcing it into a wall.

Although normally this would be extremely painful, Shinji's steel skin meant that it wouldn't harm him at all.

The pilot was trying to go through all options in his mind, but all fell in favour of Superman. _But if Father finds out…_

"_PILOT!" _His father came online. _"ATTACK NOW!"_

"I CAN'T!" He screamed. "NOT WHILE TOJI'S IN THERE!"

-------

_Incompetent boy…_ "Damn it," Gendo growled. "Activate the Dummy Plug system!"

"But sir!" Maya yelled. "Dr. Akagi hasn't authorized its usage yet!"

"It's better than what we have now!"

"Alright. Activating the Dummy Plug system!"

-------

Shinji looked in surprise as the entry plug got dark. A loud whirring was heard behind him.

Then suddenly, Unit-01 came alive again! It roared, launching itself at the possessed Unit in furious anger.

_No…No…NO! _"STOP THIS FATHER!" Shinji screamed. "PLEASE STOP!"

-------

Ritsuko had seen enough. She got onto a private channel with the pilot.

-------

"_Shinji?" _

"Dr. Akagi?"

"_Fourth button on your right control. It's the only one that works."_

Shinji pressed it. In surprise, a hidden drawer next to him slid open, revealing a spare Superman costume.

"_I took the liberty of putting it in. Never knew you would use it so soon. Happy hunting."_

Shinji slipped off his A-10 connectors and depressurized his plug suit, grabbing his 'work clothes'.

-------

Misato only looked in horror at the severe beating that Unit-01 was giving the Angel.

The bridge bunnies were the same. Maya was even vomiting in disgust.

Then…BANG!

A huge explosion sounded as the back of Unit-01's plates shattered into pieces.

"What was that?!" Misato snappily asked.

"I'm not sure!" Maya was furiously typing analyzing a new energy in the field. "But there seems to be another high-energy wave pattern!"

"Another Angel?" Misato asked in horror.

"No! It's similar but different!"

"Zoom in on the energy source."

As the camera zoomed in, Misato gasped but also didn't seem to be surprised. _I was wondering when you would show up…_

-------

"THIS STOPS NOW!" Superman yelled, grabbing Unit-01 and pulling him up into the air.

But the 13th Angel wouldn't let them get away that easily, using its rubber arms to wrap hold of Unit-01's leg.

"I'll deal with you later!" Superman said as he kept pulling, but since the Angel had no intention of letting them go he settled to using his heat vision instead, which was more than adequate to persuade it to let them go.

Unit-01 roared in surprised, kicking and lashing out at this new enemy.

"You may save the world, but don't act like a crybaby!" Superman growled as he threw Unit-01 into a lake. "It's my turn now."

Knowing the water wouldn't hold the Evangelion for long, Superman drew in a deep intake of air, blowing it out as icy-cold breath.

The cold blast of air was more than enough to freeze the lake, temporarily trapping the Evangelion.

Superman turned back, using his super speed and reflexes to avoid the Angel's tricky arms as he got around to its back, blasting the entry plug open with his heat vision and tearing it out.

Grabbing the entry plug, Superman focused his heat vision on specific points that Ritsuko had mentioned would trip off the entry plug's eject.

Sure enough, the thrusters blazed off, and Superman added to that a little of his strength to make sure Toji was way out of the battlefield.

"Now…time to finish this," Superman stated bluntly as he flew into the sky before diving down, focusing all of his strength.

The Angel roared, activating its AT field.

Superman hit the AT field, not even letting up. Eventually his own energy field broke through the AT field, and he slammed down into the Unit, splitting it in half.

Several explosions sounded to signal the end of the Angel's life.

-------

_An hour later._

Shinji, Ritsuko and Misato were all inside Gendo's office.

"Explain the cause of the explosion on Unit-01's back, doctor," Gendo said.

"The most likely explanation is that the Dummy Plug system overexerted some of Unit-01's systems, resulting in a massive overheat that eventually caused them to explode." _That was the best lie you had on all year, Ritsuko…_The doctor congratulated herself.

Gendo nodded. "Pilot Ikari…"

"SHUT UP!" Shinji screamed.

Misato stiffened slightly at his venomous tone, Ritsuko didn't show any change, knowing it was a long-time coming.

"Don't speak to me in a tone, pilot, or I will…"

"You'll do what, Gendo?" Shinji challenged mockingly. "Kill me? I'm your only pilot and as well as that, your son. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE THE DECENCY TO CALL ME BY NAME! MOTHER WOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOU!"

_Ouch._ Ritsuko smiled as Gendo's eye started twitching.

"BECAUSE OF THIS, I AM HEREBY RESIGNING!" Shinji yelled before calming down with a cruel smile as he exited.


	7. Rei

**Review responses:**

**Sun S. Li:** I'll explain Superman's super-breath in this chapter, but let me say that the original Superman already had this power.

**Ikari Zero: **Uh, to be honest, I'm not really that good at omakes. Just use your imagination, that's what it's there for.

A/N: As I said, I'm not following the EVA timeline so meetings and stuff may be different.

-------

Drifting aimlessly through space in orbit above the Earth, Superman relaxed with his eyes closed.

He never knew that he would need to use his breath so soon. He had discovered it just a few days ago:

-------

"_Happy Birthday Shinji!" Misato congratulated with a cake and herself in a black bikini._

"_Uh…Misato?" Shinji stuttered._

"_Yes, Shinji?"_

"_Could you please put something else on, please?"_

"_Oh sure! What do you want, my birthday suit or my dominatrix one?"_

_Shinji grew red, taking in a VERY deep breath._

_Misato frowned, looking at her beer. "Hey, why's my beer warm? Oh well – and don't worry Shinji, I was just teasing. I'll go get changed." She set the beer down on the table and left._

_Shinji relaxed, blowing out his breath a little faster than usual._

_In surprise he looked at his breath. It seemed very icy, like breath he would blow out on a cold day except it was at least thirty degrees outside?_

_The ice air blew across the beer can, and Shinji looked in wonder as it frosted._

_He picked it up, shaking it. _Amazing…this beer's frozen solid!

-------

He found that his ice-breath had vary ranges, from freezing solid to just merely a useful portable fridge.

_I wonder what kind of other powers I have. _Superman wondered. He looked up to the sun, the light not even blinding his eyes. _Ritsuko said I was stronger if I was closer to the sun. So then if…_

He shrugged. _I doubt I'll ever need that much power._

Stopping his drifting orbit, the hero dropped down, returning to earth at incredible speeds as a red comet surrounded him.

-------

"What do you think of the Third Child's sudden…change and departure, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki asked.

A muscle in the commander's eyes twitched. "The scenario will remain unchanged. This is merely an unfortunate delay."

"And what of Superman or as the media call him, the 'Man of Steel'?"

"Appropriate measures will be taken to counteract the Superman threat," Gendo replied. "Dr. Akagi and the Magi are, at this moment as we speak, calculating every possible strategy we have against Superman."

"He has an incredible range of powers," Fuyutsuki commented. "If he could be turned, he could become a great ally."

Gendo nodded. "I have already considered that possibility but we cannot take the risk that if he finds out about the scenario then he will attempt to stop it."

"And if Dr. Akagi cannot find a strategy to defeat him?"

"She will."

-------

_So…the bastard finally considers Superman a threat, _Ritsuko mused as she frantically typed on her laptop that was connected to the Magi. _Although Shinji…Superman, is a great ally, he is unemotionally stable, even as Superman. Appropriate steps must be taken, as Gendo commanded, in case he turns against me or anyone else here._

Ritsuko growled as another equation became unsolvable. _But this is certainly proving more difficult than expected. Even with the test results, I can't give a strategy over fifty percent probability of working…I can't even give any ten, counting Shinji's strength and subconscious resourcefulness considering his experience as an Evangelion pilot. _

The doctor turned around to look at the still-incomplete machine. _This is the best shot I have of creating an Anti-Superman. And I can guarantee that this will work…but I haven't got any definite percentages if I can create something like Superman._

-------

"Ikari?"

The former pilot turned to see Rei as he walked aimlessly through town. He offered her a small smile. "Yes, Ayanami?"

"Why are you resigning from NERV?"

Shinji's eyes grew cold and his smile turned sour. "How could I not?"

"I do not understand."

"We're just tools, Ayanami…" Shinji gestured to himself and her. "Tools that are expendable. Renewable. The commander doesn't care about anyone. He only cares about himself! I'm his SON, for goodness' sake! His son!"

Rei didn't reply as she processed what she said.

Shinji continued. "I only just realised. Eva, especially their pilots, have no future. Once the Angels are gone…what's going to happen to them? They're going to go into storage and rust. We, as their pilots are most probably going to go on permanent standby and come in for sync tests and whatever else! We're never going to be free! We're always going to be under NERV's shadow when we should be going out there making our own lives and our own choices!"

"The Eva is all that I have…" Rei began.

"That's exactly what I meant," Shinji cut in sharply. "There's more to life than Eva. As long as Eva exists, you won't have any freedom to look for the purpose that is there."

_The purpose that is…there?_

It seemed that Shinji had completely changed. Although she observed that he acted shy and meek in front of his friends and Asuka, the fact that he was acting like this in front of her led the albino to suspect that how he acted was merely that: an act, a deception, a ploy.

_A ploy for what?_

Alarm bells suddenly started ringing from down the road.

"If you'll excuse me, Ayanami," Shinji said politely as his short outburst disappeared, "I must go now."

As he ran off, Rei paused for a moment, reflecting on what he had said.

Then her mind began tactically running through all the possibilities of this sudden change, but none fit.

It was obvious she was missing something.

A blur in the sky suddenly caught her attention. Turning up to look, she saw Superman as he hovered down, blowing out the fires with his super-breath.

Subconsciously her mind made the comparison.

She stepped back in shock, her usually calm and emotionless face now displaying an obvious shock.

_How…how can this be?_

-------

"Thanks for the help, Superman!" The fireman yelled out to the caped crusader as he flew off.

Superman gave them a wave before speeding away towards the school.

_Damn it, I'm so late!_

He arrived just as the bell went for the start of the first class. At super-speed he switched clothes, sprinting through the hall and creating a whirlwind which rattled lockers while he was at it.

Stopping outside his classroom, he opened the door and peeked inside.

The teacher was ranting on, as usual. All the students were staring into their laptop screens.

Good. Shinji opened the door fully, creeping inside and closing the door behind him before he sneaked to his desk.

He looked around.

No one saw him, he assumed.

No one but one.

As Shinji turned on his laptop, his laptop suddenly displayed an instant message.

The former pilot frowned, opening it.

What he saw shocked him completely.

_ I know your secret, Ikari. _

The address was from Rei's computer. He quickly typed in a response:

_ How? _

A response immediately came.

_ I will tell you two weeks from now. _

-------

Shinji was disturbed by this new development. As he ate lunch quietly, Kensuke's shrill voice broke into his thoughts.

"Look at this news report! 'Superman blows out burning building'! This guy is incredible!"

"Yeah…I owe him my life, after all."

Shinji quickly stood up. "Toji? Are you alright?"

There was the jock, a bit banged up with some bandages but otherwise looking fine. "Never been better!" He said with a smile. "Since Unit-03's been ripped in half, I'm no longer officially the Fourth Child."

"Toji…I'm sorry that I couldn't have done anything." Shinji said, depressed. "I'm sorry that I couldn't have done anything to help you."

The jock gave him a playful punch. "Hey man, don't worry, it's all good. And besides there wasn't much you could have done anyway – it's just lucky that Superman showed up."

"It was." Shinji nodded. "And now that he's here, I know that the world is going to turn out for the better."

-------

"Baka…"

Shinji turned around, taking the bow off his cello as he stood up. "Yes, Asuka?"

She appeared really humble – not like her usual self at all. "I was just thinking…I had a talk with Superman, and he was really understanding and kind and the things he said really made me think, so…" She took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry that I was always such a bitch to you. I'm sorry that I treated you like dirt and acted so great and mighty above others. And Shinji…you were always a better pilot than me."

Shinji smiled as he walked up to her. "It's okay, Asuka. I knew that I always acted wimpy but it's time to let go of the past and face a new future. You're like a sister to me, and I'll always be there for you." They both embraced warmly, as brother and sister.

"And Asuka?"

"Yes…Shinji?"

"You're the better pilot."

-------

A/N: It seems that Superman is making a positive impact, both physically and mentally. If all goes planned, a new threat will shatter the temporary peace that Superman has created.


	8. Supersized trouble

**Review Responses:**

**Russell1: **Asuka won't be any superhero; otherwise it'd be superhero overload. Rei will have interesting powers though – I didn't honestly think of a Green Lantern but that's a good idea, although Rei will be her own original superhero.

**Ikari Zero: **I'll give you a hint: It's something to do with that machine…

-------

Shinji accidentally bumped into the class rep as he walked out the door. "Oh! I'm sorry, Horaki!" He blurted out quickly.

Hikari laughed it off. "Don't worry about it, Shinji – and please, call me Hikari."

"Okay…I'm sorry." Shinji turned and began to walk off.

"You don't always have to say sorry, Shinji," the girl said.

Shinji flashed her a smile. "But it's polite. I have to go eat lunch, I'll see you later."

She frowned. _Did Shinji just smile and act…casual?_

-------

"Ayanami, we must talk," Shinji said as he found her sitting by herself on a bench. "It has been two weeks, and you promised to tell me."

Rei looked up at him. "You may address me as Rei, Ikari."

"Then you may address me as Shinji," The former pilot replied.

"Very well, I will tell you," Rei said as she looked down again. "Will you eat with me?"

"Uh…okay," Shinji replied in genuine surprise, his shy act over.

As he sat down beside her and took out his food, it was Rei that asked the first question.

"How does it feel…to be greater than others?"

Shinji was taken aback a little by the seriousness of the question. Regaining his composure, he thought for a moment. "That's a hard question to answer. I don't really know since I've never thought about it, but I feel happy that I can use them to help others."

Rei nodded in satisfaction. _Even with these powers his selfless nature is unchanging._

"Will you tell me how you knew?" Shinji asked again.

"It was a simple matter. I noticed that as you talked, you held more confidence in your voice than when you act around your friends. Although I couldn't pinpoint why, as I saw you fly by as Superman I made the comparison of your new height and confidence to his before I finally saw through the deception."

"You have an odd choice of words," Shinji noted. "Deception…you make it sound bad."

"Is not deception what it is?" Rei asked. "How else can I express it?"

"I understand," Shinji replied.

Both finished eating their meal before standing up.

"It was good we could talk, Rei," Shinji said.

"I feel likewise, Shinji," Rei replied.

Suddenly Shinji snapped his head. "I must go now, Rei. There's a man screaming for help several kilometres away." And in a blur, he disappeared.

_You have exceptional speed, _Rei noted.

-------

Several days later – the attack of the 14th Angel (A/N: May be different to original battle – well duh)

Asuka gave a scream of pain as the 14th Angel wrapped its paper-like arms around her arms, breaking them with a sickening snap before sending her flying away.

Rei fired her rifle, emptying the entire clip but to avail as they bounced harmlessly off its AT field.

The Angel stretched out, firing a cross-shaped beam that struck Unit-00 before it had a chance to activate its AT field.

"Rei!" The commander yelled from his desk at headquarters.

"Both Unit-00 and Unit-02 have been disabled!" Makoto shouted. "There's no way they can fight anymore!"

On the screen, the NERV crew watched in horror as the Angel pounded on both Units, tearing apart their defenses before finally sending them flying away into cliffs.

"ASUKA! REI!" Misato screamed. "Get them on the channel, now!"

Maya quickly typed in the appropriate commands only to have red signals flashing all over her monitor. "Negative! The Evas are completely out of contact!"

"Damn it," The commander growled. "Get me the Third Child!" He snapped tersely, playing his last option.

"We can't! Section 2 lost track of him several minutes ago!" Maya shouted.

_What are we going to do?! _Misato thought.

"Major! A huge energy pattern has appeared on the screen!" Maya announced.

Misato smiled. _Here comes the heavily artillery._

-------

Superman dodged one of the Angel's paper arms, gathering his breath and blowing it out as frozen air.

The arm froze, as expected but the Angel fired out another beam of light which blew across the Man of Steel's invincible skin, although not injuring him certainly blowing him back quite a fair bit.

Superman gritted his teeth as he slowed himself down before using his speed and flight to attack the Angel like a comet, catching it unawares and giving it no time to put up its AT field as he pierced it, coming cleanly through the other side.

_That'll slow it down, _Superman thought as he flew to the two Evangelion units' aids.

"Rei!" Superman shouted, floating up to the front of the blue Evangelion's face. "Are you alright?"

His super-ears picked up her soft voice in no time. _"I am unharmed."_

"Great," He replied, turning to Unit-02. "Asuka?"

"_I'll be alright…" _The redhead growled.

"Stay here, I'll take care of this thing." Superman blasted off, curving around to face the Angel.

It was badly wounded, with a large, gaping hole where Superman had pierced it. However, as the hero thought, it was slowly regenerating.

But he wouldn't give it that time.

Superman flew underneath it, dodging its pathetically slow paper arms. Using his incredible strength, he pushed the Angel upwards.

And upwards.

And upwards.

"Gahh!" Superman grunted, throwing the Angel into space.

But he knew that wouldn't stop it.

So with amazing speed, he flew towards it, ramming into it like a spear and greatly increasing its speed.

"You may have an AT field, but I doubt even that will stop you from being burnt by the sun," Superman said with a grin, pushing it ever more and more closer to that burning star.

By now they were so close that the searing heat was scorching the edges of Superman's cape.

But he didn't notice that. As he was this close to the sun, he felt completely re-energized, far more powerful than what he usually was.

"Heave…HO!" He spun around, throwing the Angel in a beautiful arc into the searing sun, watching as its body burnt to a crisp.

-------

"_Put your hands in the air, Superman!"_

Superman groaned as he floated down to the earth. "Uh, guys? I kinda defeated that Angel for you."

Instead of a hero's welcome, all Superman had received were threatening warnings and several companies of soldiers and tanks.

"_The commander wishes to see you. It would be unwise not to comply. Failure to comply will result in you being shot!"_

The Man of Steel shrugged. "Seems like a simple choice."

He then floated upwards, gently flying away.

"_FIRE!"_

A volley of cannon shells and bullets flew towards him, immediately making contact and blowing into a large volume of smoke.

But Superman's sleek black and silver suit remained unscathed. "That tickles!" He laughed, giving them a wave. "Bye!"

-------

"It appears our assumptions of our new enemy were correct," The commander said from behind his desk.

"A transmission is coming in from SEELE, commander," Maya said.

"Send it in," The commander replied.

The phone on his desk rung. He swiped in his access card, picking it up.

"Yes?"

"_Commander Ikari, we have witnessed Superman in action and aren't planning to stay and find out what he wants," _The voice of SEELE-01 said. _"We're sending in a…device that, according to our calculations will greatly diminish the power of our new enemy."_

"Tell me everything," Gendo replied.

-------

"Doctor Akagi?"

"Rei," Ritsuko acknowledged. "It's time."

-------

"What do you think of the old men's plan, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki and the commander both watched the Evangelion units as they were being repaired.

And to the side, stood Evangelion Unit-01. It seemed to be in mourning, as if missing something…

"It has less than ten percent chance of working," Gendo replied. "But we've had worse odds."

"What I don't understand is…"

"It is more than likely that our staff is crawling with moles. I have reasons to suspect several of them, but this is a minor setback. They have been able to produce quicker results than Dr. Akagi, which leads me to suspect that they are far more interested in Superman than they are letting on."

"Why would that be?"

"Their motives are unclear at this point. However, be sure, everything will become clear in the end."

-------

"Misato?"

"Yes, Shinji?"

"Are you alright?"

The major frowned as she fingered her necklace. "I'm not sure…it's just like everything's happening so fast, it's incredible. You resigning from NERV but still living here…Superman our new resident Angel-killer and military outlaw…"

"Why does father want to kill him?" Shinji asked in confusion. "Isn't he helping us?"

Misato sighed. "Not everyone considers Superman a hero. No matter how hard you fight, no matter how much glory you obtain…not everyone will love you."

"Then who are the real heroes?" Shinji asked.

Misato didn't answer that as she walked off.

-------

Shinji stood by the sea in thought.

_Not everyone will accept Superman. Not everyone will love him. But…heroes aren't meant to do what they do for praise, do they? Is Superman a true hero? Am I doing this because of something else other than helping others? Something selfish?_

A slow, pleasant humming started beside him.

Shinji instantly recognized it as 'Ode to Joy'.


	9. A different kind of Angel

**Review responses:**

**Sun S. Li: **Asuka is tough. She can handle it. I'll also keep the interaction with Kaworu to a minimum.

A/N: Sorry about the wait. Hope you like this chapter, I don't think it's as long as others but this story is nearly coming to the end.

-------

Superman closed his eyes, floating in the cold and blackness of space.

His super-hearing was listening in, waiting for any sign that anyone in the world needed help.

As he listened, his thoughts came back to what he had been thinking about the other day.

_I believe that I'm doing the right thing. I was given these powers for a reason, and I will not misuse them._

_But…what happens if I do? I don't want to become a murderer. I don't want to be a tyrant._

_I don't want to be like my father…_

His eyes suddenly snapped open as he heard someone scream for help.

-------

As he zipped through the skies, Superman's eyes quickly found the source of the problem.

There was a lady in a dark cloak lying on the ground, screaming for help as a man raised a gun to her head.

Immediately Superman used his heat vision, burning the gun to a crisp as he dropped down, sending the man flying backwards with a powerful blow.

The Man of Steel turned to the lady. "Are you alright?"

She smiled underneath the cloak, and then said in a strangely deep voice, "I am now!"

Then flinging the cloak aside, she stood up!

Superman stepped back in surprise. "KAJI?!"

The unshaven man grinned. "You recognised me."

"What do you want?" Superman asked.

"It's not what I want – but what NERV wants. And they want you to stop meddling in their affairs!"

"Stop with the act, Kaji – I know you're working for SEELE," Superman said flatly. His super-hearing had realised that truth when he overheard a conversation between Kaji and someone else whom he could not identify even with his vision.

The double agent raised his hand, revealing a smooth remote. He pressed the button on it.

Suddenly everything went black. Although it was merely the afternoon when the sun was still and orange, a dark mist began to swirl around them both.

Superman frowned. "What are you playing at?"

Kaji's grin grew wider as he went forward and smashed his heel into Superman's body.

Superman went flying backwards, feeling all-too-well the full pain of such an attack. "How in the world did you get so strong?!" He croaked, struggling to get up. "But no matter. One good heat blast and then…"

"You don't get it, do you?" Kaji slammed his foot into Superman again, pressing him into the ground. "You don't have heat vision anymore."

Superman growled, trying to push up but the man's now superior strength prevented him from doing so.

"In fact, you have nothing anymore," Kaji mocked. "All we had to do was create the right _conditions_!" He pressed his foot down, pushing the Man of Steel harder into the dirt.

"What do you mean?" Superman turned his face, barely able to enunciate the words clearly.

"SEELE, using research obtained from NERV laboratories was able to figure out that the creation of a Sea of Dirac would vastly diminish and defeat your powers. The Sea's quantum physics properties would allow us to accomplish this easily."

_No way…I gained these powers by entering the Sea of Dirac, and by entering it again I lose them?!_

"Of course it's a little more complicated than that – any wrong miscalculation could vastly increase your powers, create you into a human supernova or destroy you completely."

"So what do you want?" Superman snapped. "Obviously you wouldn't want me dead otherwise as you said, I would have been completely destroyed by now!"

"You're smarter than you look, Superman." Kaji said as he removed his foot. "SEELE wants you dead – but I…recalibrated the machine with a little help and convincing that you wouldn't inhibit our agenda."

As Superman got onto his feet, ANOTHER person emerged from the shadows.

"Ritsuko?" Superman gasped. "Don't tell me…"

"I told him," Ritsuko said flatly. "After all – we're gonna need all the help we can get…"

-------

"…So basically my father and SEELE are planning a mass-genocide of the human race?" Shinji, no longer in his Superman suit, asked.

"I'm sorry I kept it from you before, Shinji," Ritsuko apologized. "But I would never have told you – until I found out that Kaji was a double agent."

"I still don't know how you found me snooping around!" Kaji complained. "I mean I was perfectly blended into…"

Ritsuko grinned. "Scientist's eye…"

But Shinji was still caught up in his own thoughts. "Mass-genocide…gosh, and I thought my father couldn't get any lower!"

"I had an affair with him," Ritsuko suggested.

Before Shinji could respond, Kaji jumped in. "That was all in the past. Shinji, _never ever_ underestimate your father's ability to go lower and Ritsuko you don't anymore. This meeting was possible simply through one person."

Shinji's eyes widened. "Superman?"

Kaji smiled. "Superman has given the hope we needed. Wherever he came from, why he came to you doesn't matter, only that he's here. His powers and strength have given all of us hope for a better world."

Ritsuko grinned as well. "Gendo was a lousy lover anyway. And we'll all see that bastard pay when he gets what he deserves."

"So how are we meant to stop Third Impact?" Shinji asked. "Superman will never murder, even if it is in the cause of justice."

Kaji nodded. "I expected such a predicament. But first thing's first, the Angels need to be defeated first. Once that's done SEELE will make its move."

"And Shinji…" Ritsuko turned towards him. "Even Superman cannot accomplish such a task alone. I have brought some…help for you."

When Shinji raised an eyebrow, Ritsuko raised her hand.

And again, another person came out of the shadows. Only this time…

"Rei?" Shinji was completely taken unawares. Only recently he had found out about her being an Angel-hybrid, and although this news was hard to digest he now saw her in a completely different light. "How is this meant to help me?"

"I would deactivate the machine to show you," Kaji said, "But SEELE would see. They're monitoring it now, and they didn't agree already for me to 'personally finish you off'."

"That means that Rei would get her power from the same source…" Something in Shinji's mind clicked. "Wait! Ritsuko, the machine you were building…"

"You've got a smart mind, Shinji," Ritsuko smiled. "You're right. Since she was already part Angel I had no trouble completely modifying her S2 organ. Unlike you she doesn't get her powers from the sun, getting them from a much more powerful S2 organ – although she won't match you in strength, she will certainly match you in…other fields. I'll let you find out for yourself."

Shinji nodded. "Right. So what do we do now?"

"Once the second-to-last Angel, the sixteenth is finished we'll meet again. Same place," Kaji said. "Until then this remains completely inside here. I will report back to SEELE and say the machine went on the fritz and you escaped."

"But how will you accomplish such a ploy?" Rei asked, speaking for the first time. "The machine is perfectly built. It appears to have no faults in its design or engineering."

Kaji grinned, lifting up a large rock. "You just leave that to me…"

-------

Later on that night, Superman and Rei were standing on the top of one of the larger buildings, looking down on Tokyo-3.

"I see that you have the ability of flight, Rei," Superman said, "And although you're not as strong as I am you're still strong and you can run as fast as I can. What else can you do?"

At this Rei smiled, pulling on her black faceless mask.

Her costume was simply a modified plugsuit. It was pure black, the mask built into it like a hood so it could slip on and off whenever she wanted.

Both of them looked down. Below, a large robbery was in progress.

Cat-like, almost like an Olympic diver she leapt from the building, dropping down at rapid speed before landing softly on the ground.

Superman decided not to help, letting Rei handle this by herself.

Rei quickly blasted forward at super-speed, taking down the first few robbers. She was only a blur as she took down all the robbers outside.

Inside the robbers shouted in surprise, firing their guns.

Rei raised a hand and an orange weapon of pure energy was created. She gripped it, slashing it through the air and destroying all the bullets quickly.

Superman smiled. _So she can completely control her AT field. Now that's impressive._

The rest of the robbers tried to flee through use of a van, but Rei simply raised a hand and sent an orange energy blast, destroying the lower of the vehicle but leaving the passengers intact.

All this was completed in less than 30 seconds. Superman had no doubt she could complete it in less than 10, had she not been demonstrating her abilities.

As Rei returned, Superman was grinning. "That's pretty impressive, Rei. What do you wish to call your…second identity?"

There was no hesitation in Rei's voice as she answered, "Angel."

-------

Several days later

"Hello, Shinji." Kaworu smiled. "It's good to see you again."

"Uh, it's good to see you too Kaworu," Shinji smiled back.

"Hey Kaworu!" Kensuke burst into their small reunion. "Come join the Superman fan club! We got everything! Superman belts, t-shirts, screensavers and pin-ups for the girls!"

Kaworu frowned as he looked at Kensuke waving these items about, the silver Superman symbol splashed on each one of them. "I have heard of this 'Superman'." He turned to the former pilot. "Tell me Shinji, who is this Superman?"

"Uh well, Superman is like a superhero who has powers, and he uses them to help people in need…" Shinji appeared like he was thinking. "…That's all, I guess."

"You guess?" Kensuke exclaimed. "You GUESS?! What are you thinking? Superman is MORE than THAT! He is an icon to us all! A…"

But Kaworu had already slipped out, and Shinji quietly followed suit.

"Is something the matter, Kaworu?" Shinji asked in concern.

Kaworu frowned. "It's just that sign on all of the merchandise…what is it?"

"It's on his suit, I think. It's 'S'…for Superman!"

"That cannot just be that," Kaworu said with a smile. "Because, in the ancient language of my people and ancestors…that sign means 'hope'."


	10. Fortress of Solitude

"FIRE NOW ASUKA!"

Unit-02 fired its modified sniper rifle at the 15th Angel in space.

_Damn it…I keep missing! _Asuka growled. _What's with that?_

"_Pilot Sohryu the target appears to be too far to hit," _Rei said in her usual monotone voice, crouched besides a building with a rifle in her hands.

"Then there's no point in giving me this…GAHHH!"

-------

"Asuka's brainwave patterns are going crazy!" Maya shouted as she looked at the charts.

"Asuka what's wrong?" Misato asked in horror.

"_The Angel…it's trying to get into my head…AHHH!"_

Ritsuko gasped. "Impossible! The Angel's invading Asuka's mind!"

"And the target is out of the range of the rifles…what do we do now?" Misato asked. _Think Misato THINK!_

-------

Rei didn't like being called wondergirl.

But in the past few days Asuka had been showing an unusual change in her character. She hadn't called her wondergirl in a long time.

So Rei believed her actions were justified when she jumped from behind the building, tackling the red Evangelion out of the path of the Angel's light.

"_Ayanami what are you doing?!"_

"Saving you!" As soon as Rei uttered this, the Angel's light turned on her and tried to enter her mind but Rei used her new control of her AT field to prevent that from happening.

But the Angel's light was very powerful and Rei knew she couldn't hold it off forever.

She then pulled a sleek capsule out of her plugsuit, pressing a button on the side.

It was something Ritsuko designed for communication. Once pressed, the capsule would emit a powerful high-pitched sound wave that would go on the entirety of the city.

The pitch would usually be too high to hear even for animals…

That is, unless you happened to have super-powered ears.

-------

Shinji was halfway through brushing his teeth after a long night of catching criminals when he suddenly heard the high-pitched noise.

_Rei needs me! _Within an instant Shinji had switched to his Superman costume and burst out of the window, flying towards the noise.

He got there in less than a second to see both Evangelion units on the ground, and Unit-00 being hit by a beam of light. "What's wrong?" He demanded.

"_Superman!" _Asuka yelled in relief. Superman's ears allowed him to pick up the agitation in her voice and the rapid beating of her heart. _"That…that Angel…it was trying to rape my mind!"_

"Rei!" Superman yelled, moving in front of the beam.

At once he felt an incredibly oppressive force closing in on his mind. _Damn it! My powers will slow it down but I have to stop this NOW!  
_He quickly flew through the beam at incredible hypersonic speeds, blasting into space easily to see the bright Angel glowing in space.

Ducking his head down, the Man of Steel ripped easily through the AT field and tore through the glowing body of the Angel.

As he did so, time seemed to slow down.

**I sense you, lilim. You are not one of us yet feel of us.**

_Are you the Angel?_

**Yes. And what are you?**

_Superman._

**Peculiar choice of name. However the symbol that I see on your chest shows you to be the earth's hero.**

_Hope? _Superman frowned. How could Kaworu have guessed that?

**Correct – and in you I sense overwhelming power…since you have defeated me and will defeat the last testers with such power only you can defeat the foolish humans in their attempt for mortality and so I will give a gift. **

_A gift?_

Suddenly Superman felt the Angel's body shimmer and in his hand a smooth crystal appeared.

**From whence you plant this seed of light, light then shall burst forth.**

And with that the Angel blew up.

-------

Shinji frowned as he changed into his normal clothes.

The crystal lay inside his desk drawer – he didn't want Misato to see it.

_What should I do? _He mused as he buttoned up his shirt. _Should I let Ritsuko see it?_

Although that would be a great idea Shinji wasn't so sure. _Whatever that Angel gave me, it felt like it was for me and me only. Like no one else should see it._

He remembered the Angel's words: **From whence you plant this seed of light, light then shall burst forth.**

The light could be an analogy for crystal since it was a crystal seed – but the light bursts forth part kind of spoiled that theory.

_Well I guess there's only one way to find out, but I have school. Once I've finished I'll come back and test it. _Shinji slipped on his plain-glass frames before heading outside.

-------

Rei and Shinji always sat beside each other for lunch now.

As Rei unpacked her lunch, Shinji noticed her food. "Rei aren't you a vegetarian?"

"Yes," She said as she ravenously devoured the meat.

Shinji watched in surprise as she easily devoured a large chunk of cold ham and meat.

"After acquiring these powers it seems that I have acquired a different metabolism as well," Rei observed.

"I didn't change my eating habits when I first got these powers," Shinji said. "A side-effect of the machine?"

"Perhaps Doctor Akagi dropped a decimal point when calculating my density," Rei suggested.

Shinji chuckled. "Perhaps."

They both grew quiet as a desperate plea for help came in.

"Do you want to handle it or should I?" Shinji asked.

Rei stood up. "I will go."

-------

Kaworu frowned as he reflected on these events.

He had seen Rei and Shinji talking together but didn't know what about.

A strange aura seemed to emanate from the Third Child. The First's aura was that of an Angel as expected but it seemed completely different at the same time.

The Second Child was not in the dark sleep. A strange hero bearing Hope in the tongue of the Angels on his chest appearing and defeating the Angels.

_I shall wait before intervening on current events. _The 17th Angel decided.

-------

Superman floated above the icy remains of Antarctica.

He had chosen this spot specifically because it was completely secluded and no one else would dare come here after Second Impact.

Furthermore it was extremely cold, even for a normal person in extreme cold weather gear but Superman hardly felt the wind on his skin.

He gripped the crystal tightly before throwing it at one of the small frozen land masses remaining after Second Impact.

The crystal glittered in the air, giving off a vibrant shine of rainbow colours as it dropped.

Superman folded his arms as the crystal was buried into the snow, patiently waiting for any events to take place.

In the first few moments nothing seemed to happen.

But then a vibrant humming seemed to fill the air. It was exquisitely beautiful, almost like a song…

_The song of the Angels? _Superman wondered.

Then what took place next was spectacular.

The crystal shone brightly and in a burst of light, large crystals came forth from it.

More and more of these came, tearing through the arctic wasteland and spiking up towards the air to create –

_A fortress? The Angel gave me a fortress? _Shinji thought in shock.

Indeed it was – a massive fortress with huge, towering crystals.

Superman floated down, walking into the entrance.

The entire place was…jagged, with the unusual straight lines that crystals formed. Superman looked around in astonishment before stepping up on what seemed to be stairs.

This led to a long pathway with what appeared to be a control panel at the end.

Superman went to it, touching one of the buttons.

Immediately a screen appeared on one of the crystal walls and hundreds of strange icons and symbols appeared.

Superman frowned as he looked at them but after a moment his brain deciphered the information, partially thanks to his Angel-altered DNA.

_This information is incredible…_Superman gasped. _It's almost like a Bible of knowledge of the Angels and their history, origins…_

He looked around him. _The place seems so quiet, it's so weird…_

It was completely lonely and silent.

Shinji smiled. _Almost like a Fortress of Solitude…_

-------

A/N: This chapter is a bit short, sorry about that just wanted to get back into my Eva mood again.


	11. Tensions

**Review responses:**

**Marco A. Salazar M: **Actually the original Superman could breathe in space but they eventually took that power out because they believed it made him too powerful but I kept it in because he needs it, he communicates with the Angel by telepathy and I just don't have much time, and that's why I can't update or write chapters much.

**Nefcanuck: **Well, superpowers usual equal a higher metabolism so if Rei didn't eat meat she would have starved to death.

A/N: Updates may be a little longer and rushed because school is really, really busy at the moment. Although I'm working on a small pet project of mine that might come out in the near future.

-------

Superman stood on the highest point of the highest tower in Tokyo-3, his cape billowing behind him in the wind.

Like a silent sentinel he watched the city for any signs of injustice and cruelty.

The 16th Angel, like the 15th was no real challenge. Superman even thought it was almost…afraid of him when he touched it.

-------

Kaworu watched Superman from the bench he was sitting on far, far below.

_You are not one of us…_he thought. _But you feel almost like one of us. A distant cousin, almost. _

He chuckled softly at this suggestion. _How then, can the lilim stand up to you? How can any Angel stand up to you?_

It would be suicide to fight him. There would be no point in sacrificing himself, because even if SEELE unleashed their mass-produced Evangelions Superman would simply annihilate them…and in reality Kaworu was afraid to die.

He didn't want to. He wanted to see this through to the end.

"Shinji Ikari," Kaworu said with a smile as he stood up. "You truly are full of surprises."

-------

"I don't like it," Ritsuko growled into the phone. "Commander Ikari's suspecting something's up and we can't alert him now before the 17th Angel is defeated. It's too early to act!"

"_I know," _Kaji replied. _"But keep him in the dark for as long as possible and we should be fine. By the time he finds out – it'll be too late."_

The scientist turned off her phone quickly as Misato entered her office.

"Yes?" Ritsuko quickly filed away several documents in her desk. "I still need to finish a full analysis of the 16th Angel's structural remains."

But Misato's eyes were cold. "Tell me about Rei Ayanami. What's wrong with her?"

Ritsuko frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It was while I was doing an evaluation of the battle…"

"YOU didn't do anything – Superman nearly obliterated the 16th!"

Misato growled. "But anyway as I was doing an evaluation…"

-FLASHBACK-

"That's weird…" Maya said as she looked at the data scrolling across the screen.

"What is?" Misato asked, coming up beside her.

"According to this, there was a _second _AT field deployed at the time when the 16th attacked Unit-00. Combined with Unit-00's I think this is what allowed it to repel the Angel and let Superman finish it off."

"Can you pinpoint where it went off?"

Maya typed furiously at the keyboard as she brought up another window on the computer. "According to this…" She stopped, looking at the screen in shock. "The AT field originated _inside _Unit-00's cockpit!"

-------

Ritsuko sighed deeply as she shuffled the documents and filed the rest of them away. "I guess I can't get out of this one now."

"So what is it?" Misato demanded, one hand now loosely holding her pistol. "What's wrong with Rei?"

The doctor stood up. "Come with me."

-------

"…So you showed Misato your little Reiquarium, destroyed it, and now she knows about Third Impact?" Shinji asked as he buttoned up his shirt, hiding the last traces of his Superman suit.

"We need more allies," Ritsuko explained. "And besides, she doesn't know all the truth. Like you and not all of Rei's secrets."

At this Shinji grinned. Rei had proved herself to be a very useful ally in the weeks earlier. Thanks to her they could both tackle different crime scenes not just in Tokyo-3 but also all around the world at the same time.

Because of their hard work this week was incredibly special in that there were _no _crimes being committed. Everyone had heard of the two superheroes and now they had some space to rest because of the fear in criminals.

Ritsuko sipped at her hot coffee before leaning her head back and sighing in satisfaction. "This is really good coffee, Shinji, but you didn't really have to…"

He shrugged. "Once I finished up with a would-be murderer I saw a nice and small coffee shop and figured I'd get you some."

"And it's great and also hot, but really you didn't need to."

Shinji grinned. "I don't hear you complaining now, not like you usually do when the coffee machine breaks down or you have cold coffee."

Ritsuko winced. "I forgot you have super-ears. But Shinji, even Superman can't save everyone."

"But Superman is sure as able to try," Shinji replied.

-------

"The machine that Dr. Akagi has been working on is…different, Ikari." Fuyutsuki said as he returned.

"How different?" Gendo pushed his glasses up.

"It appears to be able to generate energies that give a person superhuman abilities. She really shouldn't keep this information in files in her cabinet…"

"Do you believe this is part of the Anti-Superman project?"

"…Unknown."

There was a moment of silence between them as each had their own thoughts.

Finally Gendo came to a conclusion. "No matter. The machine poses no threat to us until someone enters it. However, I want Section 2 working at full capacity to investigate the reports of this new…superhero known as Angel. I want to know everything."

"Understood, sir."

-------

Fuyutsuki stood before a large cluster of sleek, black robots, designed as part of the Anti-Superman effort.

Each one was taller than a tank, machine guns and rocket launchers strapped to their arms, as well as shoulder-mounted lasers.

He heard a rustling behind him. "Interesting – you adapted technology from the Jet Alone project to create these robots."

Ritsuko stepped out from the shadows. "It was the least I could do. Those old files were gathering dust in my drawer anyway."

"How effective will these be against Superman? You remember that even an Evangelion wasn't able to stop him."

"Don't worry, Fuyutsuki. You'll see exactly what these are for when the time is right."

"And that little machine you're building," Fuyutsuki interrupted. "For the Anti-Superman project also?"  
Ritsuko froze. "How do you know about that?"

"Some things you want to find out, you find out yourself," Fuyutsuki replied cryptically. "I'll report to Gendo and say it's for the Anti-Superman project, but I know you're up to something, and I'll want answers soon."

-------

_Hmmm…fascinating. _Gendo brooded. _If that machine is capable of doing what Fuyutsuki said, then it will be an important asset._

He smirked, as a plan began to slowly form in his mind.

-------

One afternoon as Shinji was lying on the couch, taking a nap (in reality his super-ears were listening in for any possible crimes), when Misato came in.

"Shinji," she stated. "We need to talk."

The boy frowned as he got up. "What about, Misato?"

Her face darkened. "I know your secret."

Shinji looked at her strangely. "Misato, if this is some joke I DO NOT steal the panties out…"

"NO!" Misato snapped. Shinji was surprised, as she never snapped like that. "I know your alter ego."

Shinji's eyes widened. "You mean…Ritsuko told you? Everything?"

"HOW COULD YOU!" She screamed suddenly. "What you're doing, it can kill you! It's already enough that you're an EVA pilot, but…this?"

"What do you think I'm meant to do?" Shinji shouted back, his coward act all gone. "Hide these powers and hear as countless numbers of people all over the world scream for a saviour? What? Should I shut them out and hope that the police get to them in time?"

Misato was shocked at this sudden change.

Shinji continued. "How could I sit here and do nothing, especially with these powers? And how would people handle this if I told them? They'd think I'm a freak, or even worse, an Angel!"

"Shinji, you can't always be a hero!" Misato yelled. "You're doing enough as an EVA pilot, let the cops do their job!"

"I don't want to be a hero! I want to be a good person who helps people, and is someone to those who are nothing! I want to be a hope! Because of Second Impact that hope was gone, but at least now because of Superman it's coming back!"

"Shinji, I…" she fell silent. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I couldn't," Shinji stated, "For exactly the reason why we are having this argument."

There was an awkward silence between them.

Shinji then continued. "You know of SEELE's and NERV's plan. There's only one thing that stands in that way, and guess who that is?"

Misato resigned as she quietly walked away.

For the rest of the night neither of them talked to each other.


End file.
